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The shock doctrine comes to Brazil

Rich elitists have difficulty imposing neoliberalism on a nation that is healthy and has a normally functioning economy. But when a nation is in crisis, the rich elitists exploit it. They attack. And they portray neoliberalism as the only “solution” to the crisis.

Naomi Klein calls this the “shock doctrine,” and it is what’s happening to Brazil. Rich elitists (with U.S. help) are using Brazil’s crisis to shift Brazil toward radical neo-liberalism, such that poverty and inequality will become worse than ever.

(In a previous post I explained that the ultimate goal of neoliberalism is total privatization, in which a handful of people own everything, and everyone else becomes their slaves, or serfs.)

What is the crisis that the elitists are exploiting?

Brazil’s crisis has three parts:

[1] A severe recession caused by a fall in global demand for Brazil’s commodities and raw materials.

[2] The Petrobras bribery scandal, which involves at least half of all Brazilian politicians. The political crisis started when Eduardo Cunha (speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress) was indicted for taking $40 million in a kickback scheme at the state-owned oil company Petrobras. Mr. Cunha, who is also tied to the Panama Papers, retaliated against the Workers’ Party by launching a drive to get President Rousseff impeached. The result was government paralysis.

[3] President Dilma Rousseff’s foolish imposition of austerity on the people who voted for her. Rousseff ran on an anti-austerity platform in 2011 and in 2014, but in 2015 she did an about-face, and started cutting social programs needlessly. This was a fatal error, since it caused her supporters to feel betrayed. The loss of support from the lower classes opened the door for an attack from the upper classes.

The crisis and the recession have caused great anguish in the middle class. Meanwhile the corporate media outlets (owned by the rich) have used propaganda to channel that middle class anguish against Dilma Rousseff and her Worker’s Party. When Rousseff is gone, the middle class will cheer. And then they will be slaughtered by the rich.

Who is using this crisis? Who is imposing the “shock doctrine”? It is Brazil’s rich elitists, led by Rousseff’s own Vice President Michel Temer, who is poised to take power.

Mr. Temer is the leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, which represents the rich elitists, and which opposes the Worker’s Party and Ms. Rousseff. Temer is a close friend of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, plus other elitists in the USA, and they are advising him.

Why is this important?

Brazil has the world’s seventh largest economy. A radical shift to the right will be a major victory for neoliberals worldwide. Hence this is a coup against the middle and lower classes of the entire world.

Brazil will follow in the path of Argentina. Every other government in South America is already neoliberal, except for the Presidency of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

We know it is a coup, because Ms. Rousseff is untouched by the Petrobras scandal. Instead, she is charged with fudging the national budget numbers, which EVERY government does. The charge is nonsense. Impeachment without a crime is a coup.

Brazil’s recession is hurting everyone but the rich. The media outlets (all of which are owned by the rich) have convinced the middle class that their problems are all the fault of Rousseff, plus the Worker’s Party, and people with dark skin. Corrupt politicians are going along with this to save their own necks from prosecution.

When the rich elitists remove Rousseff and her Worker’s Party, the middle class Brazilians who hate Rousseff now will be crushed by the elitists. There will be austerity and privatization as never before. The gap between rich and the rest will grow wider than ever.

What’s the situation right now?

On 11 April 2015 the lower house (“Chamber of Deputies”) voted to ask the upper House (“Federal Deputies”) to impeach Rousseff. That is, to put Rousseff on trial for the alleged “crime” of fudging the national budget figures.

Over 300 of the members of Congress who voted to impeach Ms. Rousseff are themselves under investigation for graft, fraud or electoral crimes. The Brazilian speaker of the House, Eduardo Cunha, was named in the Panama Papers as taking $40 million in bribes from a multinational corporation involved in the Petrobras corruption case.

Next month the upper house (“Federal Senate”) must vote to accept or reject the recommendation by the lower house. A simple majority vote is needed. If the Senate votes to accept, then Ms. Rousseff will be put on “trial” in the Senate. Rousseff will have to vacate her office until the Senate convicts or exonerates her, which could take up to 180 days. To remove her permanently, the Senate will need a two-thirds majority vote.

During those 180 days, Vice President Michel Temer will take power, and he will use the President’s office to put Brazil on a radically neoliberal path, reorganizing the government, and terminating social programs that help the lower classes. Then Mr. Temer will begin to destroy the same middle class who – at the moment – thinks he cares about them.

If, after 180 days, Rousseff is permanently removed from office, then Michel Temer will finish out her term, which expires on 31 Dec 2018. Temer will push Brazil to the radical far-right, like Mauricio Macri did to Argentina when Macri became president (10 Dec 2015). Argentina is now a neoliberal paradise. Brazil will become a neoliberal paradise too.

With Rousseff and the Worker’s Party gone, a joyous Obama will fly down to congratulate Michel Temer on his victory, just as Obama flew down to congratulate President Mauricio Macri on 23 March 2016 for imposing neoliberalism on Argentina. Obama will invite Michel Temer in Brazil and Mario Macri in Argentina to drag their respective nations into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, joining Mexico and Peru. (Any time a nation makes a radical turn toward neoliberalism, Obama jumps onto Air Force One to go and congratulate the criminals involved, and invite them to join The Club.)

The Workers’ Party lifted millions of Brazilians out of extreme poverty through increased social spending. Then they committed suicide by imposing austerity, and thereby betraying the workers.

Vice President Michel Temer’s party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, has been implicated in extreme corruption schemes. Temer himself could soon face impeachment charges for corruption. However, when Temer takes power, he and his handlers will bribe or threaten the relevant judges and investigators, so that the scandal disappears. Every corrupt politician who goes along with the neoliberal program will be exonerated. Anyone who declines to go along will be prosecuted.

Meanwhile the corporate media outlets (all of them owned by rich elitists) will convince the masses to let bygones be bygones, so that Brazil can prepare to host the Summer Olympics, which will begin on 5 Aug 2016.

The lesson to be learned

Never betray the workers who voted for you! Never abandon your populist principles! Never renege on your anti-austerity pledges! Never serve the bankers at the expense of the masses! Never get lazy! Never underestimate the greed of the rich! Never underestimate the stupidity of the middle class!

If you violate these rules, and the economy takes a downturn (as it will sooner or later) the peasants will abandon you, and the elitists will purge you.

Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri shows what is will happen to Brazil.

In the first 72 hours after being sworn in as President on 10 Dec 2015, Mr. Macri made 29 decrees, kicking off a trend of governing by decree without getting approval from congress. Among his decrees, he fired tens of thousands of public workers, and passed edicts to criminalize protests against the firings. The mass firings continue today.

Macri is closing as many cultural centers as possible, beginning with the Nestor Kirchner Cultural center, where theatre and music shows were provided for free so that the poor and working classes would have access to high culture.

Macri plans to shut down the Haroldo Conti Centre for Memory, a cultural center and museum built inside the former torture and disappearance center, the ESMA, which functioned during the 1970s as a secret concentration camp.

Macri has ordered that the images on the Argentinian currency be changed. Instead of currency notes showing populist leaders, currency notes will show animals.

Macri’s minister of culture, Dario Lopérfido, has declared that the numbers of the disappeared in Argentina’s past have been exaggerated by leftists in order to extort money from the state. Lopérfido insists in articles, press conferences and twitter and Facebook feeds that the real number of people assassinated by right-wing governments (like Macri’s) was only 12,000.

Macri has announced that there will be massive cuts in social programs that help average people. He says the Malvinas Islands belong to the U.K. He says that Argentina will “return to the world,” meaning return to neoliberalism, “free trade” and an alignment with US and Israeli interests. He will join the U.S. “war on drugs.” He is pushing for a privatized and independent central bank.

He slashed export taxes and gutted import rules to open up Argentina to the predations of trans-national corporations.

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5 thoughts on “The shock doctrine comes to Brazil”

Rousseff did most of what she preached. She did not choose austerity – she destroyed the economy way before that by increasing government spending through the roof during the good years.

When the bad economy came around, she had 3 choices.

1 – increase taxes outright in the face of a bad economy which will make the economy worst.

2 – increase taxes the sneaky way (borrow/print) which has worst implications than #1 as corporations are not stupid like you think.

3 – cut some of yhe government spending that you had increased during the good years. Not all of them, just some.

Like Mrs Rousseff, most will opt out for #3. I bet that even you would have opted for #3 simply because it provides the highest chance of staying in office.

Rousseff made multiple mistakes years ago. When the economy went south in 2011 or so, her central bank declare a currency war on the US and EU. Brazil stated that they were going to take any steps to make sure that the real went down against the dollar, euro and other currencies.

Brazil did better than anticipated, crashing the real and destroying their own citizens savings.

The reason Brazil took the steps was to stave off highet unemployment, which would have gotten Rousseff impeached years ago.

Today those mistakes came to light all at the same time.

1. Rousseff can no longer keep giving handouts like she promised and did during the good years.

2. Her devaluation of the real destroyed the lower classes at the expense of higher employment for some time.

Rousseff deserves not only to be impeached, she deserves to be in jail. Of course, she will nevet admit to her mistakes – and neither will fanatics like you. When things are good you give communism all the credit, when its a clear failure – its always the fault of the west, the capitalists, the US and who can forget, the rich elitists, who let me remind you, were always there.

Truth is hard but the poor and the middle classes were the ones who put Rousseff there and just like every other single leftist government, they give handouts until the extorted (the middle and lower classes) can no longer take it.

That is what you will never admit – there is no free lunch and the ones paying are the lowet classes. And no, the fact that banks and military companies get “free lunches” doesnt make them free.

Chunch reminds me of my elementary school years. In every class there was always a clown who was so desperate for attention (even negative attention) that the clown misbehaved until the attention was attained. For the clown, it was a triumph to be scolded, disciplined, or sent to the principal’s office. Anything to get attention.

That’s why “Chunch” does everything possible to get a rise out of others, and perhaps get deleted. It’s pathetic.

I never read a single word of what “Chunch” writes. I see the name, and I move on.